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Tiny, perfect green space

James Bay townhouse's modest yard is a glorious place to relax

Richard Mosselman's James Bay townhouse has a tiny but terrific garden. Friends can gather round the firepit on autumn evenings.

Photograph by: Arnold Lim
, Victoria Times Colonist

Richard Mosselman's townhouse garden in James Bay is a perfect example of imaginative small-space gardening.

Seventeen years in the making, the garden was one of the stars on the Teeny Tiny Garden tour in 2009 to raise money for the Victoria Hospice.

Huge specimens of mahonia, escallonia, veronicastrum and Buddleia globosa greet you in the driveway leading to Mosselman's home, but the scale of things comes down considerably when you reach the elegant wooden gate leading into the garden.

Variegated pieris 'Little Heath,' backed by Irish yew, fill identical pots on either side the entrance. It is a formal symmetry that sets a tone of class and confidence.

Inside, a narrow passage is lined by more plants in slim, upright pots, such as Picea abies 'Pendula' and Sambucus 'Midight Lace,' plus five trays containing beautiful bonsais displayed on shelves.

Mosselman has a flair for creating rhythms throughout his garden by doing repeated plantings in a staggered pattern, but he also finds space for unusual specimens, such as Ugni, a member of the mrytle family, and Beesia deltophylla, a highly coveted and not inexpensive woodland plant with shiny heart-shaped leaves.

He also used the wire plant (Muehlenbeckia) in the most creative way I have seen - as a clustered ground cover around pots and with black mondo grass in a single container.

As you turn the corner at the end of the passageway, the garden broadens, allowing space for more experimentation.

Mosselman is not afraid to use big plants like a 'Purple Fountain' beech, 'Forest Pansy' redbud and Robinia 'Frisia.'

"I prune a lot," he says. "Some people are afraid to prune - not me. I have to or the plants will take over."

Yes, you wonder how is it possible to have all this in such a teeny-tiny space, but it looks great and healthy; clipped, of course, but perfectly placed and beautiful to look at.

To add structure and more rhythms throughout the garden, terra cotta coneshaped lanterns with multiple starshape openings have been placed at irregular intervals.

These are lit by lowvoltage landscape lighting to produce an enchanting ambience.

A few steps more and you come to the heart of the garden - a sunken patio where cosy seats are arranged around a central fire pit and a jungle of foliage plants add privacy and a restful atmosphere.

On the way to the patio, you pass more botanical treats - a kalopanax tree (castor oil tree) and Japanese pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum) in pots along with more beesia. A dense clump of kerria stretches up in one corner and the branches of a neighbouring cherry tree archs over the fence, but the ground below is packed with plants displaying interesting foliage colour and texture such as purple ninebark (Physocarpus), dwarf whitestriped bamboo (Pleisoblastus variegatus), Darmeria peltata, Sumac 'Tiger Eyes' and a few pittosporums and lilacs.

In summer, air circulation is guaranteed with breezes blowing in from the ocean nearby and watering is done twice a week by hand.

"I pour myself a glass of wine and walk around watering. It is quite relaxing."

Yellow creeping jenny has self-seeded on the floor of the patio from where you stare in disbelief at a swamp cypress and a tupelo tree in pots.

A letter-carrier during the daytime, Mosselman says he finds his plant oasis a great place to unwind at the end of the day.

He is also grateful to have a few clients who have hired him to do their gardens, so he gets to live out his big-garden fantasies at their places.

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